Here's what nearly 450 publications have recently paid freelancers

The good, the bad, and the ugly

(Illustration by Mattie Lubchansky)

Updated 7/28/25

Hello friends, and welcome to the FWT freelance rate database!

This is an ongoing project to collect up-to-date freelance rates for hundreds of publications. These community-submitted rates range from tiny, niche blogs and trade magazines to national publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Science, CNN, The Daily Beast, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, National Geographic, Wired, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Guardian, Forbes, The Boston Globe, Travel + Leisure, Time, and literally hundreds more. All of these rates were paid within the last 12 months or so, and I’ll remove outdated rates on a rolling basis.

To contribute some recent rates you’ve gotten, click here to share. Transparency about money helps us all out!

If you like what you’re reading, please consider subscribing to the free or paid version of this newsletter. Paid subs get access to all past and future paid-only posts, including the archive of recorded Zoom panels, an analysis of this very database, an expert panel on launching and growing a newsletter, a post about the 10 best things I did for my freelance career, the exact text of a pitch I sold to The Atlantic, practical tips for diversifying your freelance income, 50% off all Zoom workshops, and much more.

Before we dive in, I want to throw out some quick thoughts and caveats about this whole project, as well as rate databases in general.

The first thing to keep in mind is that, as we all know, budgets industrywide have been in freefall for years, and it’s only going to get worse. But remember that your editor at a given publication doesn’t typically have a ton of control over what they can pay. Decisions about budgeting and establishing rates often happen many layers above your editor, so in a lot of cases their hands truly are tied. They want you to get paid just as much as you want to be paid, and good editors will fight for your rates. But sometimes awful rates are, tragically, just how things go.

That said: Always ask! I wrote a newsletter a while back on how to ask for more money, but the gist is that it never hurts to ask, and good editors will do everything they can to get you more. It doesn’t always work, but it’s worth a shot. (And if the editor makes you feel bad or greedy or weird for asking, that is not an editor you should work with, and you should tell all your freelance friends what a dick that editor was.)

Next, the rates in this database reflect what a specific freelancer was paid, but there are a lot of factors involved, including story type and scope, amount of reporting, whether a freelancer has worked with the publication before, and so on. All praise and admiration to that industrious freelancer who got $3/word from Bloomberg Businessweek, but a rate like that is the exception, not the rule.

Finally, this database will be continually updated as more rates come in, so again, please feel free to contribute here.

With all of that out of the way:

Here is the database of freelance rates for nearly 450 publications!

Now go forth and get paid!

Oh, a few other things …

• Want to learn the nuts and bolts of writing the perfect pitch? Join me August 14 at 4:30 p.m. EST for a pitching workshop that will cover everything from structure, what to include in a pitch, to how much pre-reporting you should do, how to find editors to pitch, and so much more. Click here to register. (All registrants will receive a playback of the full session, and paid subscribers get 50% off all events.)

• How to use social media to find work: Join me and freelance extraordinaire Kaitlyn Arford on August 21 at 4:30 p.m. EST for a workshop on using social media to find work as a freelancer and how it can help you build a sustainable — and profitable! — business. Click here to register. (All registrants will receive a playback of the full session, and paid subscribers get 50% off all events.)

• I offer one-on-one coaching! Need help developing an idea or sharpening one you already have? Or want to talk about careers and building your freelance business? Just want an edit on a story you’re working on? I’ve got you covered! Click here to book a one-on-one coaching session to talk about pitch reviews, story development, editing, and anything else you might need help with.

• Got a question about freelancing or the wider world of journalism? Let’s hear it! Once or twice a month I’ll be doing Q&A posts in the newsletter to answer all of your questions, comments, and thoughts about freelancing and journalism in general. Drop any and all questions in the comments section below this post or email me at tim@freelancingwithtim.com, and I may feature it in a future newsletter.